Research uncovers why issues with soy can sometimes masquerade as egg allergies and what to do about it. You might possibly be able to eat eggs again!
The incidence of pediatric food allergies, sometimes life-threatening, is rapidly on the rise. Since 1993, the number of children with food allergies, particularly to the “Big-8” increased over 18 percent. These foods are eggs, wheat, milk, tree nuts, peanuts, fish, shellfish, and soy. What’s more, the number of those seeking treatment for a food allergy-related condition at a hospital emergency room tripled!
These official numbers seem too low when observing the prevalence of food allergies in everyday situations.
In my daughter’s preschool class, for example, only she and one other child had no food allergies at all in a class of twelve! This means that over 80% of the class suffered from at least one food allergy serious enough to require the teacher to maintain a list to refer to during snacks and mealtimes.
In school lunchrooms, the discussion regularly touches on who is allergic to what foods with children sometimes challenged as untruthful if they insist they have no allergies at all.
Food allergies have become the norm rather than the exception for the Millennial Generation.
Egg allergies are one of the most difficult for parents to handle as this eliminates not only eggs but any product containing them. This is tragic as eggs are Nature’s perfect food with important building blocks for a child’s growing body including choline, B12, arachidonic acid, and other critical brain-building fats.
Soft boiled egg yolk whether from chicken or duck eggs is the perfect first food for a baby for this reason. Goose egg yolks are also an excellent option, though they are less commercially available.
Health Canada recommends it over cereal grains for this purpose due to the abundant anthropological evidence of its use by Aboriginal cultures.
Not only nutrient-dense, but eggs are also the most inexpensive form of complete protein and are typically one of the easiest nutrient-rich foods to obtain locally.
Eggs made up the bulk of my diet during graduate school. They were one of the few whole, unprocessed foods I could afford on a meager budget of $400/month living in a large, expensive city.
What to do with an egg allergy?
The first thing to do is realize that your egg allergy may, in fact, be a soy allergy in disguise!
This conundrum can occur because the chicken feed used by both conventional and organic egg farms is loaded with soy.
Why soy and not some other form of protein? Well, soy is cheap for one and helps the chickens grow and mature faster for another.
Soy helps keep eggs cheap and that’s why it is favored as a common ingredient in chicken feed.
Soy Fed to Chickens Ends Up in Their Eggs
According to Dr. Kaayla Daniel in her article Second-hand Soy from Animal Feeds, four studies to date indicate soy phytoestrogens, known as isoflavones, end up in the egg yolks of chickens fed soy-based feed with one study showing that they end up in the chicken liver, heart, kidney, and muscle meat too.
In the first study, researchers from the Food Research and Development Laboratories in Shizuoka, Japan fed laying hens a diet with a high concentration of soy phytoestrogens (isoflavones).
They followed up by measuring isoflavone levels in their blood and egg yolks. Over a span of 18 days, the isoflavones peaked at 65.29 mcg/100 grams on day 12 and remained at this level for the remainder of the experiment.
Follow-Up Research
A few years later, scientists published follow-up research to the study above, reporting that they had found the most active form of soy isoflavones known as equol in the egg yolk of soy-fed chickens.
Research out of the University of Maryland and reported in the Journal of Agriculture and Food Chemistry found that eggs from quail fed with feed containing the soy isoflavone genistein had this substance in the egg yolk but not the egg white.
Finally, in 2009, an Ohio State University grad student completed his master’s thesis on the Quantification of Soy Isoflavones in Commercial Eggs and their Transfer from Poultry Feed into Eggs and Tissue.
His experiments involved 48 laying hens that were divided into groups and fed either soy-free feed, a regular feed containing 25 percent soybean meal, or a special, high soy feed with 500 extra isoflavones per 100 grams.
The experiments proved the rapid accumulation of soy isoflavones from chicken feed into eggs and tissues. The chickens fed the high soy diet produced eggs that contained yolks with a whopping 1000 mcg of isoflavones per 100 grams!
Good News if You Have a Soy Allergy
The eggs from chickens fed soy-based feed do indeed pose a threat to those with a soy allergy. It may also confusingly present as an egg allergy. However, there is some very good news to share.
Within 10 days of switching to a soy-free chicken feed, no trace of isoflavones remained in the eggs. This is the case even if the hens had grown up and fully matured eating soy-based feed!
Thus, if you think you are allergic to eggs, simply switching to soy-free eggs may solve the problem!
Whatever you do, don’t throw up your hands and turn to the common egg replacer called aquafaba chickpea water. This anti-nutrient laced pseudo-food is dangerous to health and contributes to leaky gut and the development of autoimmune disease.
Even Organic Eggs are Usually Soy Fed
As you search for soy-free eggs, know that all commercial and even organic eggs use soy-based chicken feed! In the 2009 study from Ohio State University grad student Vargas Galdos described above, eighteen brands of eggs were examined.
Every single one whether commercial or organic, free-range or caged, contained soy isoflavones.
While variations from egg to egg were observed, the total isoflavone content per egg consistently ranged from 33mcg to 139mcg per 100g of egg yolk.
High Omega-3 Eggs Lower in Soy Isoflavones
Eggs labeled as high omega-3 eggs were the only exception. These specialty eggs showed significantly lower soy isoflavone content.
Why? Most likely because flaxseed or other omega-3 fatty acid source replaced some of the soy in the chicken feed.
What to do then?
The answer is to find a farmer that offers soy-free eggs. Alternatively, raise a few hens in your backyard and feed them soy-free feed.
If being a backyard farmer isn’t possible, take heart because soy-free eggs are increasingly becoming available from local farmers.
They are in high demand by those with a soy allergy and other customers trying to avoid soy isoflavones for health reasons.
How Soy-Free Eggs are Produced
My friends Nathan and Christy Freeman, owners of Restoration Ridge Farm in Dade City, Florida offer soy-free, organic eggs to their customers and are getting rave reviews.
The following email is from a customer who realized her daughter’s egg allergy was really a soy allergy in disguise after trying soy-free eggs for the first time!
Hi Nathan and Christy,
Just have to say how much we love your farm fresh, soy free eggs!
Our daughter has a facial skin condition which has been linked to soy intolerance and discovered that this condition also appeared when she consumed eggs. Since most chicken feed seems to be soy-based, she had all but given up on the idea of having eggs in her diet again (both for baking and in cooking) because of this adverse reaction but after trying the eggs produced by your chickens, she has had absolutely no skin reaction at all !! Best part…they are delicious too!
Kind regards,
Beth
Time to Try Soy Free Eggs!
Is an allergy to eggs been your stumbling block to eating them in the past? If so, perhaps it’s time to give soy-free eggs a shot! You may find that you can enjoy Nature’s perfect food without symptoms.
Sources
Second-hand Soy from Animal Feeds
Allergenic Foods and Their Allergens
Child Food Allergies on the Rise in the US
More Information
170 Scientific Reasons to Lose the Soy in Your Diet
Baby First Foods
Why Soy Formula, Even Organic, is So Dangerous for Babies
Egg Beaters: Food for Fools
Why Organic Store Eggs are a Scam
Estrogenic Foods Like Soy Trigger Precancerous Breasts
Is Soy Lecithin Really So Unhealthy?
Does this hold true for gluten? I always wondered if my issue with eggs was due to gluten as I have a gluten sensitivity and I know wheat, barley and rye are commonly in organic chicken feed as well.
I haven’t seen research on this, but it is very possible if the chickens are eating some type of gluten in their feed that traces may be in the yolk.
Chickens, *organic and conventional*, are fed corn/soy & gluten filled pellets even if they’re free range. So the search is on for grain free eggs which I’ve found to be about $6.40-$8.00 per dozen. I am in disbelief that after all the efforts many people make to avoid corn/soy/gluten, under the guise of “organic” we’re being deceived into thinking all is well. It’s not and until we as consumers make known our displeasure by not buying “organic” eggs that are fed grains as their main diet, there won’t be a change.
I’m puzzled because your article exclusively discusses soy isoflavones, but isoflavones are not proteins and food allergies are generally to proteins. (In fact the NCBI and many others _define_ a food allergy as a reaction to a protein.) The MS thesis you cited makes extensive reference to isoflavones and health issues (such as cancer, heart disease, osteoporosis), but has absolutely no reference to allergies, allergens, or sensitivities.
Why do you believe there is a connection?
I don’t believe … I know there is a connection because many people who are allergic to eggs find they can eat them just fine when they try soy free eggs. Commercial eggs even organic free range ones, the hens get a lot of feed with soy in it.
Incidentally, the same thing occurs with red meat. There is a growing incidence of red meat allergy, but many of these people find when they eat only grassfed meat where the cattle get no soy-based feed (pasture or hay etc only) then they don’t have symptoms from eating that meat.
Thank you for this very interesting and informative article. Recently, I began looking for eggs that come from hens fed free of soy. I’ve been able to find only two and one of them comes from a private farmer in my area. I’ve become increasingly frustrated with food manufactures, farmers and ranchers that continue to put soy in their product or feed it to their animals. No wonder so many people are using thyroid medication these days. Get the soy out of our food! Make food great again. (okay, sorry. i just had to throw that in for a laugh).
This is interesting! I believe however that wheat and corn is also present in the egg as well
Thank you for this enlightening article. I have been raising laying hen for about 18 months. I was appalled at the amount of soy in standard layer feed. I am blessed to have a mill in my town that sells soy-free layer feed. I have a solid customer base of people who desire phytoestrogen-free eggs, and I am thrilled to be able to accommodate them, and have good eggs for our table.
If you live in the Southeast, you can now purchase SOY-FREE, organic, Non-GMO Project verified, pasture-raised eggs at Whole Foods Markets. Look for either Bethesda Farm or World’s Best Eggs brand and make sure to select the soy-free version (there is a standard soy-fed version as well).
Instead of soy protein, the soy-free hens at Bethesda Farm (located near Jacksonville, FL) receive their protein from wild-caught fish meal, wild stone crab meal and alfalfa. The eggs are certified by Whole Foods as meeting its new “mobile houses on pasture” standard – the highest of four standards with stricter requirements than its “pasture-raised” standard.